Art Basel 2019 made headlines over a taped up banana. But another piece of art was beloved by art enthusiasts and locals this past Basel season.
Located in Wynwood, you can check out "The Mandalorian" wall made by The Dam Crew.
The Dam Crew is one of Miami’s first official graffiti crew. They have been together since 1989 and are huge comic book fans and have been painting a variety of geek culture paintings in this wall since 2007.
“We’ve done quite a few pieces in this spot and the spot next to us, which is kind of reserved for us every year. We try to stick to movies and kind of geeky things like 'The Mandalorian'. We’ve also done Deadpool and Cable. We did one with Fallout Universe. We always tend to stick to something that we all like and something that's going to look cool in the wall." said Jorge Viera, Dam Crew Miami.
Before Art Week 2018, The Dam Crew remembered the late Stan Lee by creating a mural of him.
"We wanted to do something as a memorial to him (Stan Lee) and at the same time we know that there was going to be a lot of people here for Art Basel and we thought it was going to be a good time to do a dedication to him. So, we did Stan Lee and the famous Black Spider-Man, which is one of Stan Lee's creations. We all look up to him also, because of the art that he inspired and because of comic books in general," said Viera.
Before Art Basel last year, the group wanted to spotlight one of the most popular shows and one of the most adored characters of the year.
"Basically the concept for the Mandalorian, since we are all Star Wars fans and we all watch the show, we were all contemplating on doing the Mandalorian wall. So, we were all like 'okay cool, lets do it!' But, we wanted to incorporate something Miami related since we are all from Miami. So, Freak from The Dam Crew was the one that said 'lets put something that has to do with Miami.' So, we came up with the concept of Cuban coffee. Everybody drink 'cafecito' in Miami. We have Baby Yoda drinking the Cuban coffee and the Mandalorian character with the 'cafetera,' the hispanic household pot to make Cuban coffee," Steven Reyes, Dam Miami Crew.
The Mandalorian wall took about three days to finish and each member of the crew had its own project in the wall. The wall will be up all year long until Art Basel in December. If you want to take pictures with Baby Yoda and the Mandalorian you can go to Basel House in Wynwood.
